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• • Krinkie Outs The Viking's Stadium Effort When Wardlow made his move on the State Government Finance bill in an effort to try and remake the membership of the Stadium Commission through a seemingly innocu- ous amendment, he stirred one of the Legislature's most gifted gadflies: Rep. Phil Krinkie (R-Shoreview). Krinkie has awell-deserved reputation for being one of the State Capitol's top budget watchdogs. Krinkie's extensive knowl- edge of state government has only enhanced his role as the taxpayer's watchdog. As a result, he immediately saw through Wardlow's effort as legislative water-boy for the Minnesota Vikings, but he wasn't sure all of his fellow House members saw what he saw To correct that possibility, Krinkie rose on the House floor, was recognized and began enlightening the body. He claimed to be "...just one of those guys that runs azound trying to connect some of the dots around here." Then Krinkie started pointing out byname, mind you-the Vikings' registered lobbyists who had been in the hallways of the Capitol, working hazd lining up votes Close Friend of the Speaker, No Doubt!! Putting burning bamboo spikes under your fingernails may be more painful than reading the transcripts of some legis- lative sessions, but not by much. Yet, for true enlighten- ment and a good belly laugh, try to find the record from the proceedings of the Minnesota House for Thursday, May 1, 2003. For the 99.9% of you who won't, please allow us to summarize: The main player here is one Lynn Wardlow, the Eagan fresh- man Republican lawmaker, who now represents Governor 1Ym Pawlenty's old district in the House, is described in .. «......... « ...... » ............. as follows: "His goat as legislator is to make state government more e~'i- cient and e~f'ecttue, while making it smaller." It was ap- parently that desire to make government more "efficient and effective" that caused him to work so hazd trying to change the entire makeup of the Minnesota Sports Facili- ties Commission by adding an amendment to an unrelated bill under consideration by the full House in the final weeks of the regular session. In addition, Wardlow wanted his House colleagues to realize he was not without consider- able influence with Governor Pawlenty. He made this point abundantly clear when he bragged to his House colleagues, "The governor's office strongly urges the House to support this amendment." Almost instantly, the Wardlow move was challenged for germaneness. According to the transcript, the debate on germaneness went back and forth with a lot of members offering advice. One of those was Rep. Phil Krinkie (R-Shoreview). Krinkie is one of the best debaters Volume 21, Number 20 July 3, 2003 and waiting hopefully for this amendment. Krinkie said: '...if you don't believe this is a stadium issue, you re 100 percent wrong." Turning to the entire House membership, Krinkie asked rhetorically: "...Who can void the lease? The Sports Facilities Commission can say (to the Vikings): Guess what? We're not going to hold you to that lease...." "ThaYs the deal right now, folks," Krinkie said in addressing the House membership: "The Vikings can't go anywhere until 2011. They have to continue to play in the Metrodome unless the Sports Facilities Commission says the deal is off..." Closing the loop, Krinkie suggested that if the Vi- kings' lobbying team was successful in getting the amend- ment to change the present makeup of the Stadium Com- mission through the Legislature so they all had to be ap- pointed by the governor, "my guess is they'll be back here to ask you to open up the state's wallet to help them bufld that new facility." So, in case you missed it, there it is: The 2003 stadium debate took place on May 1, 2003. and fastest minds in the House. When the Speaker recognized Krinkie, the Suburban St. Paul lawmaker said: "...I won't pro- long advice. You've already heard that this amends Chap- ter 473 dealing with metropoli- tan government." Here Krinkie paused before delivering the ver- bal coup de grace: "There is nothing in this bill that deals with metropolitan govern- ment..." Krinkie told the mem- bers of the House. When "' • « ... «. Krinkie finished, the Speaker signals that he is prepared to rule on the germaneness chal- lenge, but before he can do that, Sviggum spots Wardlo~v wanting to speak. Wardlow is recognized by the Chair and he stuns the House by telling the Speaker "...if you're talk- ing about stretching things, I'm just a freshman, but man, there is some big rubber bands in here. And I don't see any problem with stretching this the way I want to just like you stretch things the way you want to or try to...." To which, Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum (R-Kenyon), obviously astounded by the Wardlow's attack, responds: "Represen- tative Wardlow, I'm not sure that helped your case any." Wardlow's amendment was ultimately ruled germane, but after an hour of debate, Wardlow withdrew his amendment. page 3